Some impressive engineering feats are being undertaken to repair flood damage along Highway 1 through the Fraser Canyon.
The unprecedented flooding, mudslides and washouts in November impacted 15 sites along Highway 1 between Hope and Spences Bridge. To date, 12 sites have been reopened or have a detour in place.
The latest update from B.C. Transportation for this week features images of some of the work, including a temporary Acrow steel modular bridge being installed at Jackass Mountain, between Boston Bar and Lytton.
At that site, in the last week, the team completed garnered crane access to the north side of the highway.
The Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is actively addressing structural damage at three other major sites: Tank Hill, Nicomen Bridge and the Gladwin Culvert.
Over at Tank Hill, near Nicomen, B.C. Transportation reports that embankment construction is almost complete, and crews are now installing additional drainage culverts. Once that’s done, they will put in a new rail crossing warning system and finish building up the road base gravels.
An archaeologically relevant find was made at the Nicomen Bridge worksite, so the Ministry of Transportation and Infrastructure is working with Indigenous leaders and community members to develop a shared vision moving forward. In the meantime, 95% of the construction detour design has been completed.
The team at Gladwin Culvert is currently grading the final lift of the culvert before backfilling the highway begins.
Most of the impacted areas are in steep terrain, with significant geotechnical risk and high archaeological potential. That adds to the challenges of designing and implementing repairs in a safe manner.
B.C. Transportation says it is providing as many resources as it can to reopen the highway as quickly as possible and has set a target date to open the stretch from Spences Bridge to Boston Bar by mid-January.
Once the route is open, drivers should still expect delays, reduced speeds, at-grade rail crossings and single-lane traffic in some areas.
